


to drown in your love

by vulpexin



Category: BLACKPINK (Band), K-pop, Real Person Fiction, 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Magical Realism, Red String of Fate, Supernatural Elements, jirose, side!liskook
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-02-04 13:11:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18605191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vulpexin/pseuds/vulpexin
Summary: Having successfully opened a magicial tea shop, Park Chaeyoung is truly content with living the rest of her life in the quiet neighborhood tending to her flourishing business. That is, until one day, when the source behind her constant headaches and nausea stumbles into her tea shop in the form of an arrogant wolf shifter.After that, nothing is ever quite the same.(Alternatively, Chaeyoung's a creature of habit. She rises with the sun and doesn't mind how hours seem to trickle by in a dreamy haze while she goes about her daily routine. Meanwhile, Jimin has been consumed by wanderlust his whole life; his home resides with his nomadic pack rather than a physical location. There are seven billion people in the world; around seventy percent of whom will never meet their soulmate. Despite this, Chaeyoung and Jimin seem to defy the odds.Lisa, her best friend, claims Chaeyoung is lucky.Chaeyoung, on the other hand, is not so sure.)





	1. a woman's intuition

Call it a women's intuition or a sixth sense but let it be known that Chaeyoung _knew_ that something was off-kilter the moment she woke up.

 

“Really?” Lisa raises an eyebrow as she leans against the wooden walls of Chaeyoung’s tea shop, careful to avoid the shelves of tea leaves neatly stored and labeled in airtight, ceramic jars. The stylized small ram on her upper arm, tattooed as an ode to her zodiac sign, mirrors her dubiousness by tilting its head. “I know you have more magic than most people but I’m pretty sure any sort of divination is total bullshit.”

 

“It’s just a feeling,” Chaeyoung insists. She finishes her tea, a mixture of peppermint and chamomile enhanced with a generous dose of her magic, and sighs as her tension slowly melts away. She always starts off her day with this particular mixture; it helps with the persistent symptoms she’s always had—headaches, nausea, a tightness in her chest and that’s just naming a few. “Are you here for the usual?”

 

“Yeah,” Lisa says and moves to grab the mug Chaeyoung had been drinking out of. “I’ll clean this up,” she offers, already moving to the sink before Chaeyoung can respond, “and I’ve already rung myself up.”

 

Chaeyoung bites back a laugh. Lisa dropping by each morning has become part of her routine by now; the confident blonde owns the tattoo shop across the street and once Chaeyoung opened her business a couple of years ago, had started to request blends of tea meant for calming down nervous customers. Chaeyoung remembers being so grateful the way Lisa had easily offered her friendship and loyalty as a customer. Lisa—and her tattoo shop—is renowned around the world for her extensive portfolio in animated tattoos.

 

Though everyone has a bit of magic within them, only a few people have it manifest into something useable. Out of the few magic users, most can influence inanimate things—like Lisa. Being able to influence sentient things is even rarer and that’s the category Chaeyoung falls into; her teas are more potent than regular teas and can lessen a variety of tangible and intangible symptoms.

 

She’s pouring a blend of leaves she just mixed, the base of which is lemon balm leaves, into a pouch at the counter when Lisa walks up and takes a seat across from her.

 

“Anyways, it’s probably something minor,” Lisa says, watching as Chaeyoung seals the pouch. She absently fiddles with the ends of her hair, pulled back in her trademark high ponytail. “Maybe it’ll, like, rain tomorrow or something. Nothing happens in this boring town anyways.”

 

“It’s not boring,” Chaeyoung defends loyally. In fact, she rather likes how peaceful the town is. It’s a nice change of pace from the chaotic city she used to live in when she was attending college. “People visit all the time, _especially_ to get a tattoo from you.”

 

Lisa shrugs playfully. “I guess. Besides,” she adds as she accepts the pouch Chaeyoung hands to her, “maybe it’ll be good if your intuition is right for once. This town could use a little bit of variety.”

 

Cheerful bells mark Lisa’s exit but only add to the foreboding feeling Chaeyoung has. She glances at her pinky for the first time that day. Her red string has been oddly slack recently; usually it’s taut beyond belief. Soulmate strings are finite; there’s only a certain distance it’s allowed to stretch before it causes intense discomfort to the people on each end. Chaeyoung’s not stupid. She knows that the pain she’s felt all her life is because of her soulmate, knows that the reason behind the lessened severity of her headaches recently is because her soulmate is getting closer with each day.

 

For a moment, she lets her mind wander . . . and then quickly dismisses her thoughts. Lisa may want some variety in her life but Chaeyoung is content with how her life is right now.

 

Truly.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


“You’re here!”

 

Sooyoung smiles at Chaeyoung, who’s a little out of breath as she slides into the chair across from Sooyoung. The coffee shop is always busy around lunch time; the ambient music that plays in the background is almost drowned by the sound of people talking. It’s a popular location, mostly because it’s one of the few coffee shops in the town, but also because it serves good food along with its drinks.

 

“Sorry for being late,” Chaeyoung apologizes as she places her phone down onto the table. “I know you’ve been really busy these days.”

 

“I _was_ busy,” Sooyoung corrects, tucking a strand of dark hair behind her ear. “But now that Seoul Fashion week is over, all I have to do is edit the articles I wrote which shouldn’t be too bad.”

 

Chaeyoung nods. Sooyoung’s job as a fashion editor sounds glamorous but also exhausting. Chaeyoung’s not envious at all; she’d get so anxious traveling all the time, especially since it’d mean leaving her garden unattended for so long. “I made this for you.” She hands Sooyoung a thin tin of tea. “It’s specifically made with luck in mind.”

 

Sooyoung laughs, nodding towards the cup of coffee in front of Chaeyoung. “It seems like we had the same idea then. I got you a vanilla latte with the sigil for luck.”

 

“Great minds really _do_ think alike.”

 

“Lisa told me earlier this week that you were worried about something so I thought it’d be fitting.” Sooyoung shrugs and takes a sip from her own drink. “Is she not coming today?”

 

Chaeyoung thinks back to the text she had gotten this morning: _sorry rosie but something came up_ _ㅠㅠ i’ll make it up to you guys later, i promise ♡ tell sooyoung i said hi._ “She had a customer drop by unexpectedly, I think. But anyways, she was right, sort of. It didn’t rain like she predicted, but nothing happened.” Chaeyoung laughs awkwardly, one hand rising to play with the ends of her hair. Truthfully, the uneasiness never left her; in fact, it’s only grown stronger. The loose red string hanging from her finger catches her eye again. She can see more of it now, hanging over tables and chairs to lead out the door, which she knows only happens when soulmates get closer to each other. She lets her hand fall. Hides it under the table and tries to quell any conflicting feelings. “Anyway, how was it like in Seoul?”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Chaeyoung is arranging freshly plucked green tea leaves on a metal tray in a small room joined to the back of her store when she hears bells ring, signifying the arrival of customers, and low voices talking to themselves. Confusion clouds her mind for a moment; it’s getting late and she wasn’t expecting people to come in so close to her store’s closing hours.

 

“It’ll just take a quick second for us to buy it—”

 

“It’s just a small scratch. I’m fine, Jungkook.”

 

“—and then maybe you’ll stop being such a whiny bitch about the wound.”

 

“What the fuck—”

 

“Can I help you with anything?” Chaeyoung cuts in, having made her way out just in time to see the bickering men freeze at the sound of her voice. She leans on a counter and offers her most customer friendly smile.

 

The taller one has dark, messy hair and wears a casual t-shirt that shows off the beginning of a tattoo sleeve that covers his lower arm. It’s an intricate design filled with blooming flowers and galaxies but what catches her eye is the wolf tattoo displayed prominently under a crescent moon. It’s sleeping, curled up and ears twitching occasionally. Something about the sleeve looks vaguely familiar but she’s distracted by how the tattoo, coupled with his unnatural, bright amber eyes tips her off to the fact that he’s a shifter—most likely a wolf shifter.

 

Shifters, though not that common, are still more pervasive than magic users. They’re not exactly human; they can turn into certain animals at will though in some cases, animalistic qualities will remain while they’re in their human forms—like the man’s eyes. Wolf shifters are the most common, or at least it seems that way because they thrive in groups.

 

Because of this, she’s inclined to believe that his companion is also a wolf shifter; however, he doesn’t show any visible signs of being anything other than human with his dyed silver hair, pale skin and brown eyes. Though dressed simply in all black, he’s striking; she can’t help but track his movements as he runs a hand through his hair, a bit agitatedly. The other hand is bandaged roughly and Chaeyoung notices with horror that specks of blood have stained through.

 

“Oh my god, are you alright?” she questions, eyes focused on the bandage as she steps around the counter and closer to him.

 

It’s like a splash of cold water, a dose of reality, when he subtly shifts away from her. “I’m fine.”

 

This time, it’s her turn to freeze—partly because she doesn’t want to make him more uncomfortable but mostly because of his cold tone. _How rude._ She reluctantly chalks his attitude up to the fact that there was a full moon recently; moon creatures are always more sensitive (and in some cases, more animalistic) during certain lunar phases.

 

“Don’t mind Jimin. He’s just crabby today. Your teas have healing properties, right?” The dark haired man—Jungkook, she assumes then—looks at her apologetically before nudging Jimin with enough force to make Jimin stumble.

 

“Some do, yeah,” she confirms hesitantly. “I’m guessing you need something for subding pain?”

 

“Also something for detoxification I guess? The dumbass here accidentally cut himself with silver.”

 

She winces in sympathy. So that confirms her suspicion. There are many things unique to shifters; in particular, it’s common knowledge that wolf shifters, though blessed with enhanced healing, are extremely vulnerable to silver.

 

“I try to do one nice thing,” Jimin bemoans as he glares at Jungkook.

 

“It’s okay!” She tries to cheer him up automatically, focused on measuring her dwindling supply of green tea leaves. “Mistakes happen. How many days worth of tea do you want?”

 

“What do you recommend?” Jungkook asks right when Jimin grumbles, “We should have just gone to a potions shop.”

 

Her smile drops. While her teas can be medical in nature, potions are essentially enhanced medication, with effects more potent and powerful than anything her teas would provide. Still, they’re pricey and often have a nasty, almost unbearable aftertaste. Rationally, she knows that if his injury was serious enough to warrant needing medicine, nothing she offered would be enough. It still hurts her pride, though, to hear him belittling a service she had put so much effort into.

 

Before she can respond, someone else comes barreling into her shop. Unlike Jungkook and Jimin, he’s very clearly a wolf shifter; his pointed, black furred ears—a stark contrast against his vibrant blue hair—are perked up in interest as he looks around her shop.

 

“What’s taking you guys so long?” he asks, blissfully aware of the tense atmosphere before his eyes land on Chaeyoung. “Are you an employee? This is a pretty shop.”

 

Pink rises to her cheeks; it’s intimidating to have so many eyes on her. “Thanks,” she says, then clears her throat and repeats, “How many days worth of tea do you want?”

 

“A week’s worth?” Jungkook speaks up when Jimin doesn’t respond.

 

“Ah . . . I don’t think I have enough for that much,” Chaeyoung says apologetically. “I’m actually in the process of preparing more though so if you guys are willing to drop by tomorrow morning, I can have everything ready by then.”

 

“Will do,” Jungkook says hurriedly when Jimin opens his mouth. He grabs Jimin and Taehyung by the shoulders and starts to herd them out. “Let’s go guys.”

 

She exhales deeply, suddenly very exhausted, and is glancing at the time when she overhears a familiar voice: “Told you it’d be a waste of time.”

 

 _That’s enough._ “Are you serious?” she snaps. Taehyung’s already out the door but Jungkook freezes at the door frame. Jimin, who was trailing behind Jungkook, stops in his tracks, back turned to her. “You can have your opinions but _please_ have some tact. If you’re going to insult me and my shop, do it outside where I can’t hear you.”

 

His back is tense and a shiver runs down her spine when he turns around slowly, gaze unreadable. A long moment passes. Then: “You’re right. I’m sorry, I should have been more considerate,” he says, forcing each word out of his mouth as if it’s the most difficult thing he’s ever done in his life.

 

Though it’s clearly not too sincere, she appreciates the effort. She turns away instead of responding, drained from the encounter—she’s fairly introverted and confronting people is out of character for her—when she meets resistance. Horror dawns upon her. She spins around and sees Jimin looking at his hand with interest, red string hopelessly tangled around his fingers.

 

Then, his gaze follows the string to land on her.

 

“Oh,” Jimin says mildly, “it’s you.”

 

She bristles, irritation flaring up again at his lackluster response. _This is the last straw._ “It’s _me_?” she repeats incredulously. Memories are overwhelming her again; she remembers passing out all the time when she was younger and still living in Australia, barely able to breathe because her heart felt constrained until a chance trip to South Korea eased the pain just a little bit. Remembers arriving in South Korea all alone, barely able to speak the language and communicate with her grandparents, who had been kind enough to take her in. Remembers how though the pain didn’t almost kill her anymore, there would be weeks when the string would be pulled tight again and she would be terrified of moving the wrong way and causing even more suffering. Remembers how she grew up so terrified of seeing her string get pulled as her soulmate got farther and farther away that just looking at her string would trigger a panic attack.

 

It had been years until she discovered that she had more magic than most, that she could use it to influence her physical, emotional, and mental state given an outlet. She had finally made peace with the fact that she’d have to deal with the symptoms for the rest of her life but having her soulmate saunter back into her life and be so _rude_ was threatening to ruin all the progress she made.

 

Anger clouds her mind and words come out instinctively. “Yeah, it’s just me, your soulmate who’ve you’ve put through _hell_ and back because of how thoughtless you are! It’s just _me_ , a girl who has spent all of her life either bedridden or on the verge of passing out because you couldn’t even _spare_ a passing thought about me! How could you be so inconsiderate?” To her horror, tears are welling up in her eyes.

 

“I-I didn’t realize.” Finally, there’s a note of panic that belies his cold demeanor.

 

“You . . . didn’t realize,” she echoes hollowly. Mind reeling, another unwanted realization hits her. He’s a wolf shifter. He has enhanced healing. Deep, non-silver inflicted wounds will heal in a few days for shifters like him; headaches, nausea, all the symptoms of a tense red string probably don’t even affect him at all. The red string around his finger must have been inconsequential; though she was forced to think about him everyday, he had the luxury of forgetting about her existence because he couldn’t feel the physical effects of having a soulmate. “Get out.”

 

“Wait . . .” he trails off, gaze dropping to the crooked nametag fixed to her shirt. She tries to cover it up but it’s too late. “Chaeyoung.”

 

For the first time since their encounter, he seems truly apologetic but she doesn’t _care_ anymore. She doesn’t care if any symptoms come back in full force; she just wants him _gone_. When he, nor Jungkook, who had been watching silently with his mouth parted in shock, make anything movement to leave, she stalks up to them and shoves. It doesn’t do much besides sway him on his feet but he unfreezes.

 

“I—” he begins, reaching out for her but she’s not in the mood to listen.

 

“Get out or I will call the police,” she says as firmly as she can. Chaeyoung meets his gaze steadily, sees the tumultuous look in his eyes and he must see something in hers because he swallows unevenly and finally turns away.

 

This time, Jimin is the one who grabs Jungkook by the shoulder on his way out.

 

The moment she can’t see them through the windows of her shop anymore, she flips her window sign to “CLOSED” and locks the door. Slips down the wall, pulls her knees to her chest on the floor and absently watches the red string tied around her pinky slowly inch away.

 

This time, she doesn’t feel any panic or pain but just a dull resignation that weighs down her body.

 


	2. rosie's tea shop: open

Later that night finds Chaeyoung staring at the television blankly, curled on her couch in her flat with a blanket thrown over her lap. In the background, she can hear Lisa moving around in the kitchen busily.

"It wasn't what I imagined it would be like," she admits quietly, twisting around to rest her arms on the back of her couch to watch Lisa. "For a moment, I . . ." _was hopeful to see him._ It sounds a little pathetic now that she thinks about it; she's become less of a romantic now that she's grown older but maybe she had deluded herself into thinking that those fairytale stories of soulmates meeting were a universal truth.

But the truth was this: Jimin was a jerk. _Is_ a jerk.

"It's okay," Lisa says, her tone uncharacteristically soft. She hands Chaeyoung a mug of hot chocolate and sits down next to her. Her next words are characteristically blunt though: "Subconsciously, on _some_ level, you must have know he was a dick anyways."

Chaeyoung huffs. "That's true but still, he's my soulmate, isn't he?"

_What even are soulmates?_ There are multiple theories: people you share a deep connection with, people you are romantically compatible with, people who cause your life to fundamentally change (for the better, in most cases, although there's been records of soulmates corrupting each other). The most popular theory is simple and originated from a shifter—that soulmates are whoever you need them to be. Dog shifters are usually soulmates with dependable people while cat shifters are soulmates with independent people. Shifters with traditionally wild counterparts tend to depend on soulmates as their anchors, especially shifters who find it difficult to transition back to their human form without retaining more feral aspects.

Some people believe in the concept of soulmates and find it romantic—as if the reason why the string is finite, is a length determined from birth, is because people are destined to find their soulmates. A gift from the universe, if you will.

Others disagree. They say the idea of leaving things up to fate is old fashioned, that it's cruel that being too far away from a person you might not ever meet gives you physical pain. That it's cruel that some people have strings so long they can travel around the world and still have the string be slack.

Recently, with the younger generally, especially, there's been a vocal push back against soulmates. Cutting your string is seen as an act of rebellion (or stupidity), of taking control of your life into your own hands. Though few in numbers and very unregulated due to the lack of conclusive research done on red strings and soulmates, there are some businesses who have made a profit out of severing strings. The consequences of doing so vary from: weakness for a couple of weeks at best, to severe depression and emptiness at worst.

The idea used to make Chaeyoung sick; now she wonders if she should have done more research on it in the past.

Lisa's lost in her thoughts now too. Chaeyoung feels a bit bad for asking Lisa to come over; she knows Lisa is sensitive about soulmates since her parents had her string severed when she was a baby. ("It was because I was unlucky enough to have an unnaturally short string and be born far enough from my soulmate that I was suffocating at birth," Lisa had explained. "It was out of my control.")

"You're going to be fine," Lisa eventually says and rests her head on Chaeyoung's shoulder. "You've made it this far without him; soulmate or not, you don't _need_ him."

Chaeyoung nods slowly before taking a sip of hot chocolate, careful to not move her shoulder too much.

"You can survive without your soulmate and you will," Lisa continues. She closes her eyes. Lets out a long, almost inaudible sigh. "Aren't I living proof?"  


 

 

 

 

 

 

There's someone sitting outside of her shop when Chaeyoung walks up in the morning with a renewed determination to not let anything that happened last night effect her. For a second, she think she's delirious; though she's definitely a morning person, it still takes her some time to fully wake up. As she gets closer though, she recognizes who it is.

Jungkook, with his muted animated tattoos and white gold piercings, looks out of place leaning against her quaint, wooden store. She frowns when she notices that he's dangerously close to knocking over a flower pot placed next to her chalkboard storefront sign. The lettering is getting faded, she notes absently, with the beginning of "ROSIE'S TEA SHOP" almost disappearing altogether. She'll have to fix it sometime.

"Don't crush my flowers, please," Chaeyoung says as she unlocks the door. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Jungkook startle, nearly dropping his phone. Though she's not confrontational, she also not one to beat around the bush so she doesn't bother trying to avoid him.

He follows her into the shop hesitantly, growing bolder when she doesn't kick him out immediately. "Hey, uh, I'm Jeon Jungkook. I don't know if you remember me from yesterday—well, you probably did. Jimin has that kind of effect on people—it's usually more positive, you know, but like . . . he's memorable person."

After placing her bag on a table, she turns to face him. Jungkook looks embarrassed, the tips of his ears red and he's looking everywhere but at her.

"My store isn't open yet," she tells him.

"Sorry." He takes a step back and yelps when his back hits the door. "I just wanted to apologize for yesterday."

"You didn't do anything wrong," she responds as she reaches for an tea tin on a shelf. Once she grabs it, she starts looking in her bag—she swears it seems bottomless sometimes—for a sharpie.

"Okay, well, then more specifically, I'm sorry for the mess Jimin caused. He's always been . . . more affected by the moon than the rest of us."

Chaeyoung looks up from where she was labeling the tin with narrowed eyes. "Again, you didn't do anything wrong. I don't want anything from you. If Jimin wanted to apologize, he should do it himself." She caps the sharpie and moves to give Jungkook the tin. "Here's the tea you were looking for yesterday. It's a mix of green tea and ginger; provided that he doesn't choke on his own inflated ego, it should help lessen the pain a bit."

Jungkook looks a bit stunned at her briskness. Chaeyoung would normally find him kind of cute if she wasn't still reminded of Jimin everytime she looked at him. "Thanks."

"No problem," she dismisses. Then she points at the door and raises an eyebrow. "Now, leave."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's nearing lunchtime when Yuqi comes in, eyes bright and holding another completed strand of colorful origami cranes.

"That's four hundred and forty cranes, done," Yuqi says, tossing her curly, brown hair over her shoulder smugly. Then just as rapidly, she deflates, "Just five hundred and sixty cranes to go."

"Impressive," Chaeyoung says, lip tugging up into a smile at Yuqi's entrance. Though the younger girl had started off by hanging her origami crane strands in Lisa's tattoo shop, where she works as an apprentice under Lisa, Lisa had put a stop to it once it started interfering with wall space that Lisa normally used to put up reference photos for tattoos. Lisa redirected Yuqi to Chaeyoung's shop and the rest is history. Chaeyoung doesn't mind, really. In her opinion, it looks rather pretty and somehow fits the messy yet charming vibe of her shop interior. "Are you staying a bit? Or do you need to get back to Black Ink to work?"

Yuqi looks back at Chaeyoung after admiring the new addition to wall of paper cranes. " _We're_ going out to lunch together."

"Who's we?"

"You, me, Lisa. And Chungha too," she lists, naming the charismatic main piercer who works at Black Ink.

Chaeyoung tilts her head. "Any special occasion?"

"Lisa insisted." Yuqi shrugs. "And who am I to deny a free meal?"

Well, Chaeyoung can't argue with that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
  
"Rosie!" Chungha's the first one to spot her as she and Yuqi approach the restaurant. "It's been a while! How have you been doing?" she asks in English.

Chaeyoung tries to banish all thoughts about Jimin lingering in her head. "Great," she says as she hugs Chungha. "How are you? I missed you." Though she works next door, Chungha had been abroad for the past week supporting a dance group she had been in during college for one of their competitions as an alumni.

"Hi, Chaeyoung, I'm good too," Lisa deadpans. "Thanks for asking."

"We just met yesterday," Chaeyoung fake glares at Lisa as she takes a seat at the table next to Yuqi, who chose to sit besides Lisa. Chungha and someone else she doesn't recognize sits across from them. He's admittedly very handsome, with brown hair, tanned skin and a mischievous smile. "Park Chaeyoung," she introduces herself, half-bowing in her seat.

His eyes light up with interest. "Chaeyoung, huh? I'm Jung Hoseok."

"My side dick," Chungha elaborates, winking at Hoseok who just laughs in response. "And my childhood friend, I guess. He runs a dance studio in Seoul but he's back in town for a few weeks."

Lisa hums and leans over to fake whisper in Chaeyoung's ear. "He brought back cute friends with him so if you're looking for some di—"

"Lisa!" Chungha gasps, pretending to be scandalized. "Don't say such lewd things in front of our precious baby Yuqi."

"I'm not a baby," Yuqi grumbles good naturedly though she doesn't take her eyes off of the menu.

"You've met them?" Chaeyoung asks Lisa in interest.

It's Hoseok who responds. "One of my friends is a regular at her shop." He turns to Lisa, hand under his chin and looks at her exaggerated admiration. "You must really be something for Jungkook to keep traveling here so often."

"I'm a charming person, what can I say?" Lisa responds, but Chaeyoung isn't listening anymore.

_Jungkook?_ She studies Hoseok more closely but can't detect any visible signs that he's a wolf shifter. But he had mentioned multiple friends and it's common knowledge that wolf shifters travel in groups and have bonds that are thicker than blood.

"I think I met one the other day," Chaeyoung says, trying her best to stay casual though her hands feel sweaty. Suddenly, the red string on her pinky feels heavier. "He had dyed hair, right?"

Hoseok cocks his head and her heart skips a beat when she notices the calculating look in his eyes. The corner of his lip curls up into a dangerous smirk. "You're probably thinking about Jimin."

"Or Taehyung," Yuqi chimes in absently as she tries to flag down a waiter.

_Oh._

"Maybe," he concedes as his smirk turns into something a little kinder. "It's a small world, after all."

Chaeyoung averts her eyes. She can't quite seem to focus on lunch after that, too aware of Hoseok's piercing gaze and the rapid pounding of her heart.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"What the _hell_ , Lisa?"

Lisa flinches at the curse, looking bewildered; Chaeyoung rarely swears. "What did I do?"

It takes everything within Chaeyoung to not ruin her carefully braided hair and scream. "Hoseok knows Jimin! My mean soulmate!" The words come out a little amplified in the bathroom, where Chaeyoung had dragged Lisa after Hoseok generously offered to pay for lunch, and Chaeyoung belated prays that nobody can hear them outside.

Lisa's eyes widen in realization. "Oh my god, Chaeyoung, I'm so sorry. You didn't mention anything about wolf shifters yesterday so I just assumed that your soulmate was human."

"God, I already dealt with one of his cronies in the morning; I just don't want to deal with this anymore today," Chaeyoung groans, melting in Lisa's embrace. "Or ever."

"I'm so sorry," Lisa repeats sympathetically. "Are you okay?"

It takes a few moments for Chaeyoung to calm down and respond. Eventually, she nods, forehead knocking against Lisa's shoulder a bit painfully. She winces. "You're so bony."

"Uh, have you looked at yourself recently?" Lisa finally releases Chaeyoung when another woman enters the bathroom and shoots them an odd look. "Come on, I'll shield you from him."

"If he tries to talk to me about Jimin, I'll scream," Chaeyoung mutters as Lisa leads them out from the bathroom and towards the entrance of the restaurant to exit. Her stomach drops when she doesn't spot Chungha or Yuqi outside but rather, just Hoseok.

"Chungha and Yuqi headed back first," Hoseok explains as he makes his way over. Chaeyoung involuntarily steps behind Lisa when she notices that despite addressing them both, his eyes are fixed solely on her. "Hey, can I talk—"

"No you can't," Lisa interrupts and moves firmly in front of Chaeyoung protectively. "She's busy."

Chaeyoung can't help the dry laugh that escapes from her.

Hoseok just looks amused and plays along, shifting his focus to Lisa. "Well, if you get the chance, tell Chaeyoung that I just wanted to warn her that Jimin might be stopping by in the next few days."

Chaeyoung, in fact, does not scream but instead, just blinks. _That's it?_

"Duly noted," Lisa says dryly. "Anything else?"

"I won't make any excuses for whatever Jimin did but I ask you to give him a second chance. He needs an anchor, more than anyone else, and I think that you two could get along well," he continues, dropping all pretense rather quickly. "If you want to ask me anything, Lisa will give you my number."

"Um, no I won't."

"Sure," Hoseok responds, a bit patronizing, and Lisa glares at him, though there's not really any heat behind it.

"I'm growing to dislike you more and more," she mumbles and glances back at Chaeyoung as if to ask _do you want to stay?_ Chaeyoung just grabs Lisa's hand in response. "Well, I'm off to never deliver your message," Lisa says flippantly.

Hoseok steps back. "Bye Lisa." His eyes meet hers and he offers her a small smile. "Chaeyoung."

She doesn't return it.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry if the formatting is messed up ;-; it's a struggle cross-posting to different sites


	3. black ink in your area

So here's the thing: there are seven billion people in the world, around seventy percent of whom will never meet their soulmate, and those people exist just fine. Chaeyoung's string length isn't even abnormally short or anything; she was just unlucky enough to have a self absorbed soulmate at the other end. Regardless, she's determined to live her life as before.

 

She's managed to stay alive for this long without him. She's sure she can spend the rest of her life without him too.

 

With a renewed determination, Chaeyoung finally finishes watering her last potted plant. She puts down her weathered watercan and stands up to stretch. It's about time to prop open her door and open her shop officially but business is slow in the morning anyway so Chaeyoung is in no rush. Instead, she goes to crack open a window, letting sunlight and air in.

 

It's inevitable; her thoughts eventually drift to Jimin. The thing is though, though she would really like to stop thinking about him, the problem is that she quite literally can't anymore. Once soulmates meet, a connection is formed; she's not sure how to describe the sensation but she can feel him at the other end. She is acutely aware of his presence, though she has no clue where he is.

 

In fact, the only positive thing that's happened ever since she met him a few days ago is that her string has remained slack. Though she's still been drinking tea the moment she wakes up anyway, it's nice to not have to drink one specifically made to ease pain.

 

She sighs, moving to flip over her window sign. Part of her wants Jimin to never enter her life again; she's heard that soulmates spending more time with each other makes their connection stronger and she's not sure she wants to be tied to him like that. But a deeper part of her is a little sad that he hasn't made any attempt to contact her again. She tries to bury the feeling though; maybe it's good thing, especially since she's still hurting over his comments.

 

Seventy percent of the world's population don't ever meet their soulmate, she reminds herself. Chaeyoung herself doesn't even know anyone who has met their soulmate. Her dream was always to open a business of her own and she's accomplished it already with great results. Regardless of what happens in the future, she thinks she'll be fine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"This packet has everything you need to know about taking care of your piercings. Generally, as long as you leave it alone and let water run over it in the shower, it'll heal fine. Don't use any irritants—like soap and especially tea tree oil—and look, I know you're probably not going to listen to me, but try to not use q-tips if you feel the urge to clean it since fibers might get stuck in the piercing which will prolong the healing process. All the gunk should eventually fall out on its own."

 

Chaeyoung widens her eyes, impressed at how Chungha managed to say all of that in one breath.

 

Chungha raises an eyebrow at the customer, who's still looking at her new lobe piercing through a handheld mirror. "Any questions?" When the customer shakes her head, Chungha nods towards the front of the tattoo shop. "Follow me then. I'll ring you up in the front."

 

Chaeyoung turns to Lisa, who's huddled over a table, completely focused on sketching out a design on paper. "Lisa," she whines, "I'm bored."

 

The blonde doesn't bother looking up. "It was your choice to close your shop today," she points out. "Why did you close it anyway?"

 

_Because even though I'm still annoyed at my soulmate, I can't stop thinking about him? Because even though I've tried to bury myself in work, everything in there reminds me of him?_ ". . . I just needed a change in environment," Chaeyoung eventually says. She shrugs when Lisa finally looks up with a skeptical gaze.

 

"Well, if you're going to stay here, might as well make yourself helpful," Lisa says. She hands Chaeyoung the paper she was drawing on. "Can you get Chungha's opinion on this?"

 

Chaeyoung pouts. "Don't you want my opinion?"

 

"Rosie, you're too nice. I know you're going to say it looks fine because you think all of my tattoo designs look fine."

 

"I'm not wrong though," she retorts.

 

Lisa shakes her head but is smiling anyways as she opens up a notebook. Chaeyoung heads off to front with the paper in hand; it really is a nice design, in Chaeyoung's humble opinion. Once she hands it off to Chungha, she loiters around for a little bit, admiring all the reference art hung up on the walls. Black Ink gives off such a different vibe from her own shop; while her shop is a little cluttered, Black Ink is clean and organized.

 

"Where's Yuqi?" she asks as she looks outside at the opposite row of shops. Her store stands out for being the only one whose interior is still dark. It's the weekend so there are a lot of people—both families and groups of friends—out right now walking up and down the street.

 

Chungha purses her lips in thought. "Took the day off. She said it was because she felt sick but I think she actually just needed to finish an assignment due today that she procrastinated on."

 

"College kids." Chaeyoung snorts. "Glad I'm done with that." She tilts her head as she notices someone come to a stop in front of her shop. Their face is hidden under a baseball cap but she recognizes the silver hair that peeks out from underneath.

 

_Figures that he's dropping by on the one day she's not open_ , is her first thought. Then: _what is he doing here?_

 

Jimin's lingering at the entrance; though she can only see his back, she imagines he must be reading the sign she had pasted to the front of her door, claiming unexpected illness as the reason why it's closed. For a moment, she entertains the thought of pretending like she never saw him. But when she sees his shoulders drop, she moves on autopilot, heading out the door despite Chungha's bewildered voice asking her where she's going in the background.

 

_Lisa's right_ , she thinks gloomily, _I'm too nice._

 

She comes to a stop behind him, all too aware of the people glancing at them for obstructing the road. "It's your fault, you know."

 

Jimin spins around quickly, eyes wide. He doesn't relax when he sees her; in fact, he seems to get more tense. She raises an eyebrow—well, tries to—when he doesn't say anything. Lisa always told Chaeyoung that Chaeyoung tended to raise both eyebrows at once.

 

A moment passes.

 

He swallows nervously. Runs a hand through his already disheveled hair. When he speaks, he speaks softly and she has to strain to make out his words from the chattering crowd around them. "I came to apologize. Can we . . . can we talk somewhere more private?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

"It's not my fault," is the first thing Jimin says when she closes the door of _Rosie's Tea Shop_ behind her. Immediately, she regrets coming over to talk to him. She watches as he looks around the shop and feels a flush of embarrassment at how cluttered it is for a moment. She tries her best to squash the feeling.

 

"Generally, people don't try to shift the blame when they're apologizing," Chaeyoung responds dryly.

 

He grimaces. "I never felt the string until . . ." he trails off uncomfortably but she gets what he means. _Until now._

 

Chaeyoung looks away. Truth be told, this was something she had considered when she was younger—that her soulmate wouldn't experience the pain she felt. Albeit, it was a brief thought; shifters weren't that common so it was far more likely, and far more cathartic to assume her soulmate was human and redirect her hurt at them for being inconsiderate. Which, to be fair, inconsiderate seems to be the word she automatically thinks of when she thinks about Jimin these days. "You never considered how much pain you must have been putting your soulmate in?"

 

"I assumed they were also a shifter."

 

"Not all shifters heal like wolf shifters do," Chaeyoung points out. "Most cat shifters don't. Neither do bird shifters."

 

He wrinkles his nose. "How often do you see cat and bird shifters? Most of them are wolf shifters."

 

"And how often do you see shifters in general? Wouldn't it be more likely that your soulmate is just human?"

 

"The thought never crossed my mind. I told you, I just assumed my soulmate was someone like me so I never really thought about how much strain I could put on the string without . . . you know, hurting someone. It was never intentional, I swear." A flash of guilt crosses his expression and for the first time, she feels a bit bad. Her anger ebbs a little and now she mostly feels resigned. Because if he genuinely never felt the string until now, then maybe the string really was an afterthought. And it's not like Chaeyoung can go back in time and change anything; she didn't even know him then.

 

Chaeyoung tries to shake the feeling off though and narrows her eyes. "What kind of apology is this?" she demands. Maybe she's hallucinating, but she doesn't think she's heard him say the word "sorry" once since following her into the shop.  "Do you even know what you're apologizing for?"

 

He hesitates. Looks away for a second, then mumbles, "For hurting you."

 

"But you spent this whole time deflecting," she says in confusion. Then, a thought hits her. "Oh my god, are you just here because your friends forced you to?" Memories of Jungkook and Hoseok come flooding in, making her flinch involuntarily.

 

"They . . . didn't force me," he says very weakly.

 

She exhales deeply. Turns to the side and massages her temples in exasperation. "You're insufferable, you know that?"

 

"Thanks, Cherry," he responds just as dryly.

 

_Cherry?_ Her jaw drops. "I go by so many names but you _still_ managed to get it wrong. Chaeyoung, Roseanne, Rose, Rosie," she lists. Then, just for good measure, translates her English names to Korean. "Literally anyone of those could work." If she dies early, it's all going to be his fault.

 

"Cherries are part of the rose family." Jimin shrugs, all signs of insecurity fading as his confident facade falls back into place.

 

"I—what?" She stares at him, not quite comprehending anything. He's trying to suppress a smirk and Chaeyoung blames her total confusion on why she suddenly notices that he's kind of attractive too. _Are all his friends models or something?_

 

"I said, cherries are part of the rose family," he repeats. Shrugs again. "It's close enough."

 

Chaeyoung blinks, dumbfounded.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"I swear, I was this close to punching him in his stupidly handsome face."

 

They're seated at a table in a bustling Korean barbeque restaurant. Lisa's busy grilling the meat while Sooyoung pats Chaeyoung's arm in sympathy, looking completely out of place in her chic form fitting dress with her hair curled. They had all just gotten out of work when Chaeyoung texted them, demanding to meet so that she could either rant or wallow in pity about her arrogant soulmate. She groans, feeling a bit lightheaded and downs another shot of soju.

 

"I hate him so much," she slurs and drops her head to rest on the cool metal table with a sigh. "The next time he comes up to me and spews bullshit, I'll just—" she breaks off, weakly curls her hand into a fist and shakes it in the air. "You know?"

 

"Sure," Lisa says unconvincingly.

 

Chaeyoung lifts her head and glares at Lisa. "I will!"

 

"Okay, fine. Call me before you do it," Lisa says, waving the tongs at Chaeyoung. "I'll film it so we can upload it to YouTube and make you go viral."

 

"That's a _great_ idea," Chaeyoung hiccups, pointedly ignoring Sooyoung's muttered _no, it's not_. "Then the whole world can see what a jerk he is!"

 

"Yeah, um, if all people see is _you_ punching him in the video, people are probably not going to think that he's the jerk," Sooyoung says.

 

Chaeyoung's expression falls. The slowly fading rational part of her mind reminds her that Sooyoung is right. She's kind of over being rational though—because the rational part of her knows that it's not entirely Jimin's fault that he couldn't feel anything from the string until now, that he wasn't really aware when the string would be too taut. Still, his personality rubs her the wrong way and he's a convenient outlet to direct all her pent up anger and hurt. So. She reaches for the soju bottle but Sooyoung slaps her hand away.

 

"You've drank enough," Sooyoung says sternly. "You're such a lightweight, Chaeyoung, and if you drink anymore, you're going to hate yourself for having such early business hours."

 

"No," Chaeyoung whines and makes another futile attempt to grab it before getting distracted by the grilled pork belly Lisa abruptly drops onto her plate.

 

"The meat is done!" Lisa says loudly. "It's your favorite, too."

 

Chaeyoung claps with glee. Successfully distracted by food, she doesn't even notice Sooyoung moving all the bottles and shot glasses to the far end of the table, out of her reach.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> i feel like i'm always getting inspired at the worst moments :') definitely should studying and not writing but!! everything is fine!!
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> disclaimer: for this fic, i'll probably focus on completeness rather than major character development since a) my other fic "a little bit scandalous" already focused on character development, b) though i'm garbage at finishing long fics, i really wanted to try my hand at writing one and c) bc life stresses me out and i just want to write without overthinking everything haha. for the first time in like . . . forever lol i'm actually feeling inspired to write so though i don't normally edit anything anyway, this will probably be even more "unedited" since my writing style is pretty concise i guess and i literally haven't been looking back when i finish typing HAHA. so sorry in advance for any errors and any discontinuities/confusion about the universe. i'm kind of making it up as i go along and seeing how much i can write before i burn out!
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> hope that it was interesting and you enjoyed reading it anyways! and kudos to you if you actually read this mess of an author's note :')


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